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The
Gabonese Government has invited all of the African Member
or non-Member countries of the WTO to the Libreville
meeting, the objective of which is to enable African
trade officials and private-sector partners to acquire a
better grasp of the WTO rules and agreements. The meeting
should also help the African countries in their technical
preparations for the future trade negotiations. The
meeting will be chaired by H.E. Mr. El Hadj Omar Bongo,
President of the Gabonese Republic.
Mr.
Mike Moore, Director-General of the WTO, Mr. Salim Ahmed
Salim, Secretary-General of the Organization of African
Unity (OAU), Mr. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Omar
Kabbaj, President of the African Development Bank (ADB)
Group, and representatives of the developed countries and
development assistance institutions will be taking part
in the Libreville meeting.
In
plenary, the Ministers will reaffirm their political
commitment to the multilateral trading system and examine
ways and means of enhancing the participation of the
African countries in that system and in WTO activities.
A
series of workshops organized by the WTO Secretariat on
ten themes covering the WTO agreements will enable the
delegations of the African countries to familiarize
themselves with the substance of the rules and agreements
governing multilateral trade.
Fifty-three
countries should attend the Libreville meeting: Algeria,
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon,
Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros,
Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial
Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe,
Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa,
Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia
and Zimbabwe.
The
following sub-regional integration organizations in
Africa will also take part in the conference: Economic
Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Central
African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC), West African
Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the Arab Maghreb
Union.
This
meeting has been made possible by the financial and
material contributions of Gabon, France, the United
Kingdom, Luxembourg, Japan, Chinese Taipei, South Africa,
Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, the Agence Intergouvernementale
de la Francophonie, the European Union, the African
Development Bank, the International Development Research
Center and the United Nations Development Programme.
Alongside
the meeting, President Bongo will organize a round-table
to assess the implementation of the decisions and
recommendations of the summit on poverty reduction and
growth held in Libreville in January 2000. This meeting
will be attended by the Heads of State of the countries
members of the follow-up committee and the heads of the
institutions and agencies involved in development
financing and aid.
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